Vacuum cleaner floor tool



Aug. 7, 1934. P. E. TRACY Er AL VACUUM CLEANER FLOOR TOOL 2 Sheets-Sheetl l Filed July 30, 1932 z? 2/. 22 za 32 a6 $.31 u a r r .h I

Aug. 7, 1934. P. E. TRACY ET AL VACUUM CLEANER FLOOR TOOL' Filed July 30, 1932 2 Sheds-Sheet '2 vvwvvvvv was: Au "1, 1934 i UNITED srA'rss PATENT OFFICE aaalgnors to poratlon, ware Air-Way Electric Appllan Toledo, Ohio, a co poration oi DelaoeCor- Application July :0. :2, Serial No. seam 10 Claims. (01. -158) This invention relates to vacuum cleaners and has for its object to provide a floor tool of the type employing suction as a primary source of picking up foreign material, supplemented by 5 mechanical agitation other than a revolving brush.

To be more'specliic, the object of the present invention is to provide an arrangement wherein a brush or other type of agitator member is 10 mounted in the floor tool for variable adjustment relative to the tool and to the surface being operated upon, and in which the shifting of position of said brush or agitator member is accomplished by manual pressure upon the floor tool.

l6 Another object of the invention is to provide such an arrangement in which there is provided mechanism linking the aforesaid brush or agitating member to movable mountings of the floor wheel or roller supports on which the tool is 2o'carried in such .a manner that manual pressure upon the tool will transmit movement to the agitating member.

Another object of the invention is to provide a novel arrangement of suctionhead, floor wheels,

resilient mounting connecting the wheels to the head so as to carry the latter on the wheels resiliently, to allow manual depression of the headadjusting V means to vary the height of the head in said below a normal riding position, and

20 normal riding position.

With these and other objects inview our invention consists in the combination and construction and arrangement of the various parts 4 thereof, whereby the objects contemplated are 36 attained, as more fully set forth in the accompanying specifications, pointed out in our claims, and illustratedin the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a plan view partly in section of onehalf of a floor tool em odying the invention.

Fig. 2 is an inverted plan view of the same. Fig. 3 is a sectional view of the same taken on theline 3-3 of Fig. l.

Fig. 4 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view through one end of the same.

Fig. 5 is a similar view of a modified form of construction of the invention.

Fig. 6 is a similar view of a further modified f form of construction of the invention. Fig. 'I is a similar view of a still further modiiied form of construction.

Fig. 8 is a similar view ;of another modified form-of the invention. Fig. 9 is a sectional view taken on the line '6 8-9 of Fig. 8.

Fig. 10 is a similar sectional view of the form shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 11 is a detail view of an element of the form shown in Fig. 5. I A floor tool of the type under consideration comprises a suction head 10 provided with a neck 11 joined as by a swivel joint 12 to a suction tube 13 forming part of a vacuum cleaner of well known construction.

The suction head 10 has a suction mouth defined between parallel lips 14 which are preferably channelled to receive agitator bars 15 designed to engage a carpet or the like to disengage therefrom attached threads, hair, 1int, etc.

The present invention provides a brush or 7. agitating member in the form of a straight bar 16 provided with a row of bristles 17, and mounted for vertical sliding movement in a vertical plane intermediate the lips 14 by means of pins 18 secured to the bar 18 and slidably mounted in 7 s 19 formed integrally with the suction head 10.

Referring now to Fig. 4, the boss 19 is formed on the lower wall 20 of a socket 21 opening into the end of the suction head 10. The upper wall of the socket 21 is indicated by the reference numeral 22, and-the side walls are indicated by the reference numeral 23.

.We provide a floor wheel 24 for each end of the floor tool, and a mounting for each floor wheel 35 comprising an arm 25 one end of which is bent end of which is forked as at 27 (Fig. 1) to enclutch with a peripheral groove 28 in the upper end of the pin 18.

The main body portion of the arm 25 is separated from the forked end 27 by means of an onset portion 29, and the line or corner between the oifset portion 29 and arm 251s indicated by the 25 reference numeral 30. .The corner 30 forms a fulcrum to engage the, wall 20 of the socket 21 in such a manner as to allow the arm 25 to rock or teeter around such fulcrum.

The fulcrum 30 is maintained in engagement with the wall 20 by means of a spring 31 engaged between the arm 25 and the upperwall 22 of the socket 21 or a rotatable cam adjusting element 32 joumalled in said upper wall and the side walls 23. Such cam may be provided with a leverindicated 106 in-dotted lines at 33 positioned adjacent an outer face of the floor tool, for giving rotation to the cam. The spring 31 engages the arm 25 between the fulcrum 30 and the wheel 24, whereby it not only serves to maintain the fulcrum 30 in engage- 110 ment with the wall20 but also serves to resiliently transfer the weight of the suction head to the arm 25 and thence to the wheel 24 in order that the position of the floor tool mouth relative to the surface being operated upon may be adjusted by manual pressure upon the floor tool.

Although the preferred form of construction of the spring 31 is in a V shaped formas shown in Fig. 4, the outer lower end of the V being secured as at 34 to the arm 25, the spring may take other forms such as for instance that 'shown in Fig. 7 in which it is secured to the arm 25c near the fulcrum 37 and is a simple leaf spring 31c instead of being V shaped, or the spring 311; shown in Fig. 6 of which the inner end is bent back as at 35 and secured to the arm 25a intermediate its ends, or the form shown in Fig. 5 comprising a coil spring 31b.

A pin 36 extends through an opening 36a in the spring 31 and serves to retain the entire mounting in its proper position longitudinally of the socket 23.

All of the operating mechanism is encased within the socket 23, and the only communication between the socket and the interior of the suction head is through the boss 19, which is closed by the pin 18 so that no suction escapes at this point.

In the operation of the device, downward pressure upon the floor tool will tend to move the suction head to a lower position relative to the wheels 24, thus causing the wheels to move upwardly relative to the suction head. Such upward movement will cause the arms 25 to rock about the fulcrums 30, the outer ends moving upwardly and the inner forked ends 27 moving downwardly, whereby the brush 16-17 will be pushed downwardly toward the surface being operated upon. By increasing the pressure, the downward projection of the brush may be increased and any amount of pressure desired by the operator may be brought to bear against the surface being cleaned.

Conversely, when the pressure is relaxed, the tension of the spring 31 will cause the arms 25 at their outer ends to swing back toward the wall 20 and the inner ends of the arms will correspondingly swing upwardly, lifting the brush 16-17 back toward the initial position shown in the drawings. It may be mentioned at this point that in this position, the brush is normally inoperative. Consequently, it may be said that the brush may be moved into and out of operative engagement by means of manual manipulation of the floor tool.

If desired, instead of fulcruming the arm 25 against the wall 20, it may be mounted upon a pivot 37 as shown in Fig. 7.

In the modification shown in Fig. 6, the fulcrum is formed at to point A between the inner end portion 35 of the spring 31a and the upper wall 22 of the socket, and the inner end of the arm 25a is urged upwardly by means of a spring 39 engaged between said inner end and the bottom wall 20 of the socket. The preferable form of construction in this case is to secure the spring 39 to the inner end of the arm. 25:; and to slot both spring 39 and arm 25a to receive the pin 18.

In this form of the invention, the spring 39 should be lighter than the spring 3111 or should be extended sufliciently past the fulcrum point A so as not to interfere with the fulcruming of the arm 25a and so that it serves only its intended function, namely, that of lifting the brush 16-17 and maintaining the shoulder 35 of the spring 31a in engagement at the fulcrum point A.

In the modification shown in Fig. 5, the arm 25 takes the form of a straight arm 255 the inner end of which has an aperture 41 (see Fig. 10) which receives a pin 42 secured in the lower socket wall 20, and the outer region of the arm, instead of the inner end thereof transfers movement to the brush 16-17. Linking mechanism in this case is a stub shaft 43, slidable vertically in a recess 44 (Fig. 10) formed in the suction head 10 provided at its upper end with a right angle extension 45 (Fig. 11) engaged above the arm 25b and,

at its lower end, with a notch 46 in which is receivedone end of a lever 47 the other end of which is forked as at 48 to receive a pin 49 secured in the brush 16-17. The lever 47 is pivoted intermediate its ends on a pivot pin 50 secured in the wall of the suction head 10. The lever 47 is shown in plan in Fig. 10.

The extension 45 may be provided with a button 51 to engage the lower end of the coil spring 311) so as to transmit the pressure of said spring to the arm 25b. The stub shaft 43 will be moved upwardly by the arm 25b, and will be urged downwardly by the spring 31b. Upward movement of the outer region of the mounting will thus result in upward movement of the stub shaft 43 which will be translated into downward movement of the brush 16-17 by the lever 47.

In that form of the invention shown in Figs. 8 and 9, the wheel 24 is mounted on a wheel shaft 52 formed .as a lateral extension of a vertically slidable carriage 53, slidably mounted in a cylindrical bore 54 in a mounting bracket 55 which in turn is slidably mounted for vertical adjustment between lips 56 formed on the end of the suction head 10. The bracket 55 and lips 56 are preferably dovetailedshape as shown in Fig. 9 so that the bracket 55 is securely held against lateral movement in any direction.

The bracket 55 is provided with a lug 57 which projects through a slot 58 in the end wall 59 of the suction head 10, and which is formed with spaced depending cars 66 between which is received a lever 61. One end of the lever 61 is received in a cavity 62 in the-carriage block 53 while the other end is snugly received between a pair of ears 63 formed on the end of the brush bar 16a, and hinged thereto by means of a pin 64 extended through an elongated slot 65 which may be formed in the lever so as to provide a lostmotion connection. The lever 61 is pivoted intermediate its ends on a pin 66 which is mounted in the ears 60.

An adjusting screw 67 is extended through the suction head 10, engages both the suction head and the lug 57 and is provided with a threaded connection with one of them.

A coil spring 68, enclosed in the bore 54, acts between the head of the carriage block 53 and the bracket 55 so as to resiliently transfer the weight of the suction head 10, through the medium of the bracket 55, to the carriage block 53 and thence to the wheel 24.

It will now be seen that downward pressure upon the floor tool will cause the carriage block 53, which fits snugly within the bore 54, to move upwardly relative to the bracket 55 and the suction head 10, swinging the outer end of the lever 61 upwardly and the inner end thereof downwardly and causing the brush 16a-17 to be projected downwardly. The floor tool is resiliently mounted on the floor wheels 24 through the medium of the coil spring 68. Adjustment of the normal riding position of the suction head determined by the balance between 'the weight thereof and the tension in the coil spring 68, may be accomplished by rotating the screw 67 so as to change the position of the bracket 55 relative to the suction head 10.

Such adjustment will'not change the relative positions of brush 16w-17 and floor wheel 24 since the brush and the linking lever 61 are mounted on and carried by the bracket 55. The wheel shaft 52 extends through a slot 69 in the bracket 55, which slot is closed at all times by the carriage block 53 so that no suction will be lost through the brush operating mechanism.

We claim as our invention: a

1. In a suction cleaner, a'floor tool comprising a suction head providing a suction chamber, a floor wheel, a mounting device movably mounted on the head wholly outside of said chamber and having a movable projecting portion on which said wheel is journalled, said device including resilient means carrying the weight of the adjacent portion or the suction head to said wheel and allowing depression of the suction head relative to the wheel when pressure is applied to the head, an agitation member mounted wholly within the chamber for vertical movement toward and from the surface being operated upon, and an element movably mounted in an opening in a wall of said head, projecting from the exterior thereof into said chamber, sealing said opening against any substantial fiow of air therethrough, and linking said member to the mounting so as to cause said member to advance downwardly relative to the suctionhead when the latter moves downwardly relative to the wheels.

, 2. In a suction cleaner, a floor tool including a suction head providing a suction chamber, a floor wheel, a mounting arm fulcrumed intermediate its ends on the floor tool, exteriorly of the suction chamber, said arm having a projecting end on which said wheel is journalled, resilient means engaged between thearm and the suction head and transferring the weight of the adjacent region of the suction head to the arm, an agitation member mounted in the suction chamber for vertical movement toward and from the surface to be operated upon, and a pin engaged with the other end of said arm, slidably projecting through a wall of said suction head into the chamber, and linked to the agitation member to cause said member to move downwardly relative to the suction head when the latter moves downwardly relative to the rollers.

3. In a suction cleaner, a floor tool comprising a suction head having a suction chamber and an outwardly opening end socket one wall of which is common to it and the chamber, a wheel mounting arm mounted in said socket for vertically swinging movement of its outer end, said outer end projecting from the socket and constituting a wheel carrying part, resilient means engaged between the socket and said, arm to transfer the weight of the adjacent region of the suction head to said arm, an agitation rnem ber mounted wholly. within the chamber ravertical movement toward and from the surface being operated upon, and an element movablymounted in anopening in said common wall, projecting from the exterior thereofinto said cham-: ber, sealing said opening against any substantial flow of air therethrough, and linking said member to the arm to cause said member to advance downwardly relative to the suction head when the latter moves downwardly relative to the wheels. I

4. In a suction cleaner, a floor tool comprising a suction head providing a suction chamber,

a .wheel mounting arm swingably mounted on 30 the suction head exteriorly of said chamber and projecting beyond the end thereof to form a wheel carrying part that is swingable vertically, resilient means engaged between the arm and thesuetion head and transferring the weight of the adjacent region of the head to the am, an agitation member mounted in the suction head for vertical movement toward and from the surface being operated upon, and a pin axially slidable through a wall of said head and projecting into 90 said chamber linking said member to the arm I to cause said member to advance downwardly relative to the suction head when the latter moves downwardly relative to the wheels.

5. In a suction cleaner, a floor tool compris ing a suction head having an outwardly opening end socket, a wheel mountingarm mounted in said socket for vertically swinging movement 01 its outer end, said outer and projecting from the; socket and constituting a wheel'carrytng part, mo resilient means engaged between the socket and said arm to transfer the weight of the adjacent region of the suction head to said arm, an agitation member, and a pin carrying said member, slidably projecting upwardly into the socket, and linked to the arm, to cause said member to advance downwardly relative to the suction head when the latter moves downwardly relative to the wheels.

6. In a suction cleaner, a floor tool including a suction head having a suction chamber and an and opening socket the lower wall of which separates it from said chamber, a floor wheel, a mounting arm having a portion mounted in said socket and a projecting portion on which said floor wheel is journalled, said arm being fulcrumed'intermediate its ends against the lower wall of said socket, resilient means engaged between said arm and the suction head and transferring the weight or the adjacent region of the no head to the arm, an agitation member mounted in the suction chamber for vertical movement toward and from the surface to be operated upon, and a pin engaged with the inner end 01' said arm, slidably projecting through said lowersocket wall into the chamber, and linked to the agitation member to transrer movement thereto from the arm.

'7. In a suction cleaner, a floor tool including a suction head having a suction chamber and an end opening socket the lower wall of which separates it from said chamber, a floor wheel, a mounting arm having a portion received in said socket and a projecting portion on which said floor wheel is journalled, said arm being fulcrumed intermediate its ends for vertical swinging movement, resilient means engaged between said arm and the suction 'head and transferring the. weight of the adjacent region of the head to the arm, an agitation member mounted in the sucion chamber for vertical movement, a pin carryasaid member and slidably projecting updlyinto said socket near the inner end of said am, theiupper end oi said pin having an annular groove, the inner end of said arm having a fork embracing the pin and received in said groove.

8. In a suction cleaner, a floor tool including a suction head having a suction chamber and an end opening socket the lower wall of which sepmounting arm having a portion received in said socket and a projecting portion on which said floor wheel is journalled, said arm being fulcrumed intermediate its ends for vertical swinging movement, a leaf spring secured to the arm at one end and resiliently engaging the upper wall of the socket near its other end, for transferring the weight of the adjacent region of the head to the arm, an agitation member mounted in the suction chamber for vertical movement, a. pin carrying said member and slidably projecting upwardly into said socket near the inner end of said arm, the upper end of said pin having an annular groove, and the inner end of said arm having a fork embracing the pin and received in said groove.

9. In a suction cleaner, a floor tool including a suction head having a suction chamber and an end opening socket the lower wall of which separates it from said chamber, a floor wheel, a mounting arm having a portion received in said socket and a projecting portion on which said floor wheel is journalled, said arm being fulcrumed intermediate its ends for vertical swinging movement, a leaf spring secured to the arm at one end and resiliently engaging the upper wall of the socket near its other end, for transferring the weight of the adjacent region of the head to the arm, means carried by the socket, engaging said leaf spring to retain the mounting arm in the socket, the spring being disengageable from said means to allow withdrawal of the arm from the socket, an agitation member mounted in the suction chamber for vertical movement, a pin carrying said member and slidably projecting upwardly into said socket near the inner end oi. said arm, the'upper end of said pin having an annular groove, and the inner end of said arm having a fork embracing the pin and received in said groove, said fork being disengageable from said groove'by longitudinal retraction.

10. In a suction cleaner, a floor tool including a suction head having a suction chamber and an end opening socket the lower wall of which separates it from said chamber, a floor wheel, a mounting arm having a portion received in said socket and a projecting portion on which said floor wheel is journalled, said arm being fulcrumed intermediate its ends for vertical swinging movement, a resilient member secured to the arm and an adjusting element engaged between the head and said resilient member and cooperating therewith for transferring the weight of the adjacent region of the head to the arm, an agitation member mounted in the suction chamher for vertical movement, a pin carrying said member and slidably projecting upwardly into said socket near the inner end of said arm, the upper end of said pin having an annular groove, and the inner end of said arm having a fork embracing the pin and received in said groove, said fork being disengageable from said groove by longitudinal retraction.

PRA'I'I E. TRACY.

DEWEY M. DOW. 

